Tag: Israel

For “Prime Minister Netanyahu and the hawks in Congress, mostly Republican, the primary goal is to undermine any potential negotiation that might settle whatever issue there is with Iran,” the renowned political commentator and linguist tells Amy Goodman on a recent episode of “Democracy Now!”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is stridently and continually harping on the alleged dangers of Iran to Israel’s security. And yet, there are, in fact, more pressing dangers to Israel than Iran’s nuclear reactors.

As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu makes a bid to thwart President Barack Obama’s foreign policy toward Iran, the Iranian press is reacting to the wrench Netanyahu is trying to throw into negotiations over Iran’s civilian nuclear enrichment program. But for some odd reason, American mass media are almost never interested in what critics of the United States are saying.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu clearly believes he can openly side with the Republican Congress against President Barack Obama without facing any consequences. However, Meir Dagan, the former head of Israeli intelligence, sees danger.

Truthdig Editor-in-Chief Robert Scheer and the other “Left, Right & Center” panelists discuss the applause that Israel received at the Conservative Political Action Conference, a “clean” funding bill that keeps the Department of Homeland Security open without picking a fight over immigration rules, and the announcement that marijuana is now legal in Washington, D.C.

In just a couple of years, the first human head transplant surgery is set to take place; a black hole 12 billion times the size of the sun is making scientists rethink a widely accepted theory; meanwhile, the Iranian version of street artist Banksy delves into “Iran’s turbulent past” with his work. These discoveries and more after the jump.

A fundamental theme of Israeli propaganda—and virtually its sole theme under the governments of Benjamin Netanyahu—has been that anti-Semitism is responsible for the growing criticism of or hostility toward Israel and its policies.

According to the Palestinian legal monitor Military Court Watch, about 47 percent of detainees in Israeli prisons are being held “in violation of the Geneva Conventions,” and there are “at least 151 Palestinian children” among the thousands of Palestinian prisoners.

Senator Bernie Sanders, the most consistent and prominent progressive in the U.S. Senate, has decided to skip the speech of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Congress on March 3. It is Bibi’s Kanye West moment.

Last week an Israeli helicopter gunship targeted Hezbollah outposts in Syria southwest of Damascus, near the front with the rebel Support Front (Syria al-Qaeda), which controls the Golan Heights on the Syrian side.

The political ramifications are clear: House Speaker John Boehner and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a colossal mistake by conspiring behind President Obama’s back, and the move has ricocheted on both of them.

In October 2012, a brigadier general for the Israel Defense Forces explained his country’s border policing strategies at a border technology conference in El Paso, Texas. “We have learned lots from Gaza,” he told the audience. “It’s a great laboratory.”

Republican House Majority leader John Boehner secretly invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Washington to address Congress and then once it was set up he let Barack Obama know about it.

The recent excitement in Paris produced an occasion of great surprise to an American observer, certainly to one who witnessed the transformational fear exacted from America’s governing elite by the 9/11 attacks in 2001.

The 39th president of the U.S. has kept quite busy since the end of his term, but he put aside some time to talk with the “Daily Show” host about the Middle East and the recent Paris unity rally, among other things.

The folk-wisdom incorporated into the story of the Tar Baby and Br’er Rabbit applies to the Middle Eastern wars from which the United States and the West want to retreat, but again and again find themselves caught deep in the tar.

The Japanese “celibacy syndrome” isn’t just a problem that will affect Japan’s economy; new documents reveal that former U.K. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher wanted to ban sex toys in her country; meanwhile, the German government’s anger over NSA leaks has been curbed due to fear of Islamic State. These discoveries and more after the jump.

A student group has revoked an invitation for me to speak at a university because of my views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Its action is part of the routine censorship carried out on campuses against those who will not read from the Israel lobby’s script.

This week on Truthdig Radio in association with KPFK: Max Blumenthal is chased out of Germany, Robert McChesney is optimistic about revolutionary change, we speak to the creators of the new documentary “Remote Area Medical,” and Robert Scheer interviews Leslie Cockburn.

This week on Truthdig Radio in association with KPFK: Max Blumenthal is chased out of Germany, Robert McChesney is optimistic about revolutionary change, we speak to the creators of the new documentary “Remote Area Medical,” and Robert Scheer interviews Leslie Cockburn.

Sen. Tom Harkin openly expresses his regrets about Obamacare; Israel seems headed toward early elections in which Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman may become a “major kingpin”; meanwhile, writer Max Blumenthal explains why he was censored when talking about Israel in Germany. These discoveries and more after the jump.

A former reporter and professor of journalism argues that The New York Times omits and blurs facts to protect Israel; drones are having an impact on the way we measure crowds, which is significant in a number of ways; meanwhile, a Russian TV show tried to prove that American parents turn their children gay with propaganda. These discoveries and more after the jump.

Apparently some people just can’t deal with gay PDAs, and, surprisingly, it’s not just heterosexuals who get uncomfortable; a former Israeli intelligence leader expresses his fears about the future of Zionism; meanwhile, Winnie the Pooh has been banned from a small town in Poland for being a “hermaphrodite” who “exposes himself in public.” These discoveries and more after the jump.

Chocolate, wine, coffee—these are just some of the foods we’ll lose due to climate change; an American expat living in France explains why “Americans are suckers who have themselves to blame for crappy broadband”; meanwhile, a town in Alaska may become the first place in the U.S. to tax churches. These discoveries and more after the jump.

The Israeli prime minister doesn’t seem to notice the changes occurring in Europe with regard to Palestine; scientists have discovered the brain has different neurons for each flavor category; meanwhile, Google is offering to store a copy of your genome in the cloud at a small fee. These discoveries and more after the jump.

A poll determined 84 percent of American Jews would favor—either strongly or somewhat—a deal with Iran that would relax tough sanctions on the Iranian economy in exchange for the country’s agreement to limit its nuclear program to civilian purposes and accept inspectors at its nuclear facilities.